Unusual Sapients

Alcedo careened over the hillside. She had only just recently gotten old enough to wander away from her Herd unattended; this was a wonderful privilege for the youngest members, who up until then couldn't leave the safety of numbers without an adult at their side. Now, however, Alcedo knew her Herd wouldn't be moving from a particular clearing for a while - it had sun, trees, grass, and a stream - so she was able to wander as she desired. Yet still, she kept her ears lifted and nose lifting this way and that for any signs of danger.

EVentually she picked up on an intriguing scent - one she'd never whiffed before. She turned back to the distant, tall shape of her herd in the distance, slender necks bent down to snuffle at the grass below them. She flicked her ears with indecision, one turned to the source of the strange scent, the other toward her family and friends. I suppose if I told anyone about it, she thought with a huff, they would just revoke our ability to wander again. So she turned away and decided to look at it all on her own.

For a while the trail was hard to figure out - it seemed to split into a hundred different little pathways, some thick and some skinny, some healthy and some deathly ill. All the while she kept following the scent to the best of her ability, concerned and shuffly.

Finally she came upon the source. It was a great lump of beasts, all sitting calmly underneath a rocky overhang, which shaded them from the hot daylight. She swished her short, tassel-like tail and lifted up a flat paw, unsure whether or not to go forward. She'd never known these creatures before, never seen them; if she had never seen them, they didn't hunt her or her kind, right? But then again, they were in a new Valley...

She stepped forward, angling both ears forward and holding them as still as possible - a hard task for one of her people. She blinked her dark brown eyes thoughtfully and Belgiumed her head as one of the youngsters, a speckled thing with wide, fluffy paws and a long black-tipped tail, perked up and growled at her.

"Hello." Alcedo said welcomingly, sitting up at full height, trying to look as friendly as possible. "My name is Alcedo. What's yours?"

The cub stood up and let out a tiny growl from the back of his throat. Within seconds most of the smaller adults were awake, their ears perked and their muscles taught when they caught sight of the great hulking female before them. She flicked her ears in confusion as they stared in wonderment before the big cats suddenly stood on their haunches and let out wild snarls, sounding like echoes of thunder on the hillsides of her birthplace.

"Wh- What's wrong?" Alcedo asked, lifting a paw nervously, getting ready to move forward. As she leaned, the rest of the group wakened except for the bigger cats, the ones with ruffs on their necks. Her ears flattened nervously as they started to feint around her, closing in a ring 'round her form. She spun in circles, trying to keep an eye on them - to no avail.

Stupid, she scolded herself as one of the cats reached out a claw-laden paw at her long, spindly hind leg. She let out a deep, bellowing squeal and lashed out with a back leg, her short fur bristling. I should have gotten the Herd.

Suddenly one of the maned cats sat up and surveyed the situation. Suddenly its entire body became a killing machine, from lashing tail to drooling fangs. Alcedo shook like a winter leaf, her eyes wide with terror. She backed up slowly until a maneless wildcat slashed at her hip, making her buck and squeal. She danced in a circle like a frightened modern-day horse, feeling sweat bead up from her skin and adrenaline run through her veins like the tiny mice scurrying just below the surface.

Suddenly her legs worked on their own accord, and she was sailing above the maneless wildcats with ease, like a massive bird. She thumped heavily on the other side, immediately breaking into a run. She felt fear drive her movement, her lungs pumping desperately, her heart thudding in her chest, blood roaring in her ears. She didn't even think. She'd never felt mindlessness before: mental silence, her experiences a hot soup of scents, smells, tastes and emotions, without words or even thought.

Suddenly the wildcats stopped the chase and paced around, snarling angrily. She stopped, turning to look at the maneless cats, forcing her consiousness to return to her. Her forelimbs seperated widely, she panted and panted and panted until her lungs were sore but full. Her tassel-tail swished on her hindquarters, eyes wide until her whites showed around the edges. The cats padded back and forth, claws scoring tiny trenches in the earth, baring their teeth at the newcoming herbivore.

She moved her nose around, looking for the scent of her Herd - but found nothing. Panic pulled her belly into the ground once more. She realized that, in her mindlessness, she had forgotten the way to her Herd. Now she didn't know where she was, lost in a wide plains that looked the same in every direction. Her body broke into shivers of fear. With the wildcats on one side and the unknown on the other, how was she ever to hope to return to her family again?

She shuddered and picked a direction - the exact opposite of where the wildcats lie - and started walking there, looking around. She felt fearful, she felt lost - she felt like a foal, lost, after being orphaned thanks to the great dogs with the fluffy back-manes. Her nose squirmed before her, looking for a single familiar scent. There was nothing.

So she walked.